1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a centrifugal clutch comprising a housing arrangement, a pressing plate which is coupled with the housing arrangement so as to rotate together with the latter around an axis of rotation and so as to be movable in the direction of the axis of rotation, a supporting element which is movable axially with respect to the housing arrangement, and a plurality of centrifugal members, each of which is supported with respect to the housing arrangement in a first supporting area extending radially from inside to outside and is supported with respect to the supporting element in a second supporting area extending radially from inside to outside. An axial distance between the first supporting area and the second supporting area of a pair of supporting areas associated with each centrifugal member decreases radially from inside to outside, and every centrifugal member is radially displaceable by centrifugal force along the pair of supporting areas associated with it. An actuation force transmission arrangement in the force transmission path between the pressing plate and the supporting element, exerts a force acting upon the supporting element in the clutch releasing direction.
2. Description of the Related Art
A friction clutch which can be activated by centrifugal force is known from DE 30 19 377 A1. By means of this known centrifugal clutch, a flywheel which is otherwise freely rotatable is suddenly coupled to a crankshaft of an internal combustion engine when a determined limiting speed of the flywheel is reached in order to generate a drive torque which cranks this crankshaft and accordingly starts the internal combustion engine. The roller elements acting as centrifugal members are supported with respect to a housing associated with the flywheel on the one hand and with respect to a plate-like supporting element on the other hand, these two structural component parts or structural component groups having supporting areas which approach one another in radial direction toward the outside. The plate-like supporting element which is not otherwise supported in the entire arrangement is supported in axial direction at a disk spring that is secured axially in its radial outer area with respect to the flywheel and, therefore, also with respect to the housing. This disk spring in turn acts upon the pressing plate in axial direction, namely, in the present case, by means of another disk spring. Accordingly, these two disk springs permanently generate a force which pretensions the supporting element in the releasing direction so that it is also ensured that the centrifugal members are positively pretensioned toward the radial inside and held in their radial innermost position when there is no centrifugal force applied.